2 Samuel 1:1-2:11, John 12:20-50, Psalms 118:19-29, Proverbs 15:27-28
Today is the 22nd day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a pleasure, it is an honor, and it is a joy to be here with you today to take the next step forward on our journey that is leading us through the Scriptures this year. And, so, we finished the book of first Samuel yesterday and that, of course, brings us to the book of second Samuel that we will begin momentarily, but let’s just kind of catch ourselves up.
Introduction to the book of second Samuel:
By way of reminder, since we talked about this when we began first Samuel, first and second Samuel was all a single collection of books, together with other texts that were then later on separated along the way for clarification and ease of finding things. It would’ve been pretty hard for Samuel to have written second Samuel since he had already died and we experienced his death in first Samuel and we even saw the King Saul go to a medium to try to bring him up from the dead and the last thing we have Samuel saying to anyone is to tell Saul that tomorrow you’ll be with me and he was killed among Gilboa at the hands of the Philistines in battle the next day. So, we don’t actually know who penned second Samuel, but it does seem that whoever did had first-hand first-person knowledge of the events. And second Samuel, as we move into in just a second here, it’s gonna pick up right where we left off. It’s not like we’re gonna be switching gears and complexions here. We’ve basically concluded the book of first Samuel with the death of Saul and his sons and we’ll pick up there and second Samuel will cover the life of David and his ascension to the throne and his victories and his passion for God and then then the mountaintop of his life and the trailing off, his falling away from God as well. And we’re gonna just sit here on the front row and see how much all of this applies to our lives because we’ll find ourselves in the life of David, often as we did with Saul and it gives us one more example of how pressing into God, obeying God, following God with our whole heart brings about victory and falling away from God brings about rebellion and eventually brings about destruction. And One more thing just before you get started in second Samuel to note is that, a lot of these stories we’re gonna hear them again when we get to the books of first and second Chronicles but they won’t be word for word and they won’t be from the same perspective and that’s the interesting thing about the Bible. We have this story of David and we’re reading it right now from a prophetic perspective in the books of Samuel who was a prophet and a judge of Israel. When we get to the books of first and second Chronicles we’ll read the life of David from a priestly perspective and get their commentary on these same stories, but that’s not for now, that’s for when we get there. Just a little bit of a heads up because when we get there it’ll like we’re hearing some of the same territory again wonder and we’ll wonder, “haven’t I heard this story”, which is very some similar to what we get in Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the synoptic Gospels. Nevertheless, let’s dive in. we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Second Samuel chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 11.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we began second Samuel today David finds out that Saul has been killed and he laments, “oh how the mighty have fallen” and we begin to turn our attention, of course, to David and his reaction and all the comes next. And we see that he grieved for a lost king and a lost father-in-law who wanted to do nothing more than to kill him. And it’s actually this, David’s humble posture and the way that he’s beginning to lead contrasted so starkly with Saul’s that will become apparent and compelling to the people as we move forward into the story because, you know, we can think of this Sunday school style and say, “okay I know…I know Saul was the first king of Israel and David followed him.” And we can just think, “well…Saul was killed and so they made David King and that’s just how it was.” But that’s not just how it was. Saul’s death didn’t make David Israel’s King. David inquired of the Lord, as we just read, about where he should go because he was in Philistine territory and he was a Philistine and was asking God if he should go back to his homeland. And God said, “go" and David said, “where” and God said, “Hebron”. So, David moved to the city of Hebron where he was subsequently made the king of the tribe of Judah, right? So, one of the tribes of Israel. So, now the king of Israel has died and one of the tribes of Israel have decided to make their own king and that’s David. Meanwhile, Saul has a remaining heir that’s still alive, his name Ish-bosheth and Abner, the general of the Army who survived the battle, mad Ish-bosheth king. So, that’s where we are. That’s the lay of the land as we move forward in second Samuel.
And then in John’s Gospel we move another step further into the story of Jesus final days and we just…we saw the whole situation descending on Jesus one more time, right? He’s like, “my soul is troubled. Should I ask the Father to save me from this hour?” But this is this is why came. So, Father, bring glory to your name.” And we can notice that right to the end confusion swirled around Jesus. Even though the words that he spoke spoke deeply into the hearts of his hearers and awakened their souls, and even though his ministry confirmed that He was truly sent from God, the religious traditions were so deeply ingrained that it was…that it was nearly impossible to penetrate and, in the end, impossible to penetrate. And ironically Jesus ambition wasn’t to destroy anybody’s traditions. He was living within them, but he was also critiquing them in the process and most of the people didn’t understand. And Jesus is like, “the lights only gonna be shining a little while longer, like while I’m here. So, walk in the light while you can so that the darkness won’t overtake you because the people who are walking in the darkness don’t know where they’re going. So, walk in the light while you still have time so you can become children of the light.” Okay, so these issues that are confronting Jesus as we read through them in the Gospels and in the Gospel of John in particular right now, these issues are still around. The gospel has been handed down to us over thousands of years, but over that time people have created new traditions. And even though our rich heritage and traditions in the faith are incredibly valuable, the ceilings that we put on those traditions are not very valuable. When we think we got the whole thing perfect and indestructible, right, our theology is bulletproof, then Jesus often comes to tear down our ceilings. That’s what we’re watching him…that’s why the religious leaders are so angry at him. But through this example we should understand that the Father isn’t going to conform to what we think we know. And when we’re stretched out in our faith, we think it’s so thin that we begin to doubt, and then we feel guilty about that, we’re not doing something wrong, we’re reaching beyond the ceiling because it’s not enough anymore. So, as we consider our doubts and our fears and our assumptions about our faith let’s ask ourselves whether we’re any less confused then the people hearing Jesus were because this forces us to face whether what we’ve been told is truth and we’re often forced to reach beyond ourselves and beyond what we think we know and reach for God, which is the point of faith. So, Jesus says, “I’ve come as a light to shine in the dark world so that everyone who puts their trust in me will no longer be in the dark.” This is for everybody. This is for you and this is for me, but it’s gonna require that we reach into the dark and through the dark beyond the ceilings we’ve placed on our faith and reach for the light and realize there isn’t a ceiling.
Prayer:
Holy Spirt we invite You into that because the ceilings, we’ve constructed them ourselves to try to keep ourselves safe, but they just cover over the light shining in and we’re lost in the dark again when You’ve invited us into freedom, into complete freedom. We believe that You have invited us into the light to be transformed into children of the light and we believe that that is what is going on and we also confess that we that we spend too much time in the dark. Come Holy Spirit, because we’re choosing this. Come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth, lead us into the light of the Savior today we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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